Purpose Of Blogging
Why do people blog? Blogging can be seen as a method to express one's views and opinions without restrictions. People get hooked to blogging due to a myriad of reasons: personal, business, political and even for defaming others. The sceptics may view blogging as pure stupidity as more and more people reveal their personal information on the Internet. However, the main purpose remains the same throughout the years; to get the message across loud and clear to a global audience.
A magazine article titled 'Blog Power' Source: Business Next - Blog Power on Flickr
Classification Of Blogs
Blogs may be classified into a variety of types. Listed below are some brief classifications of blogs:
"Depending on your take, blogs are either a fantastic liberation, a self-indulgent waste of time, or a complete mystery." - Giles Wilson (2006).
The quote above clearly shows that people's opinion on blogs are diverse and different. The introduction of Blogger in 1999 shaped the world of blogs which we know today as the 'blogosphere'. More people turned to writing blogs and even more were waiting to read blogs. While some people are attracted by the popularity which blogs might bring to its author, most bloggers are merely ordinary people documenting their lives on the Internet. Blogs are increasingly recognised as a powerful and competent publishing tool (Jensen 2003).
Malaysians too has caught the blogging fever. A press release by Microsoft, 'Women rule in Malaysian Blogosphere' reported that a survey done in September 2006 discovered 49 per cent of Malaysian blogs are created as a way to connect with friends and families. 50 per cent of respondents like writing about their thoughts and commenting on current issues. Interestingly, only three per cent of Malaysian bloggers consider themselves as 'citizen journalists'.
Blogging Communities
The rising number of bloggers also prompted the growth of blogging communities. Blogging communities are a group of people who gather together based on their common interests or shared values. Such communities exist in Malaysia. Nuffnang Malaysia, Asia's first blog advertising community and Bloglah.org are examples of prominent blogging communities in Malaysia.
Designing for Online vs Designing for Print
Both print and online are examples of multimodal texts. According to Maureen Walsh (2006), multimodal texts are texts which incorparate a few elements such as text, visuals and sound.
Based on personal experience, I believe designing for print is more difficult compared to designing for online. Designing for print has more limitations compared to websites. I also believe that when given a choice, people will prefer the print form rather than the online form for heavy reading. According to Diane Reep (2006), readers only 'scan' websites and they hardly read every single line and they only seek the information they want on the website.
New Forms of Media Publishing
Blogs are a good example of the new forms of media publishing. This phenomenon has been around for nearly a decade now and it shows no signs of slowing down. More and more people are signing up and creating new blogs everyday. Yet, new forms of media publishing does not mean the death of the traditional forms; they complement one another.
Classification Of Blogs
Blogs may be classified into a variety of types. Listed below are some brief classifications of blogs:
- By genre - Blogs are classified based on the topics they cover (i.e. politics, entertainment, personal, etc.)
- By media - Classification of blogs based on the media they present (i.e. vlogs for blogs comprising videos, photoblog for blogs comprising photos, etc.
- By device - Moblogs are blogs created using mobile phones/PDAs.
"Depending on your take, blogs are either a fantastic liberation, a self-indulgent waste of time, or a complete mystery." - Giles Wilson (2006).
The quote above clearly shows that people's opinion on blogs are diverse and different. The introduction of Blogger in 1999 shaped the world of blogs which we know today as the 'blogosphere'. More people turned to writing blogs and even more were waiting to read blogs. While some people are attracted by the popularity which blogs might bring to its author, most bloggers are merely ordinary people documenting their lives on the Internet. Blogs are increasingly recognised as a powerful and competent publishing tool (Jensen 2003).
Malaysians too has caught the blogging fever. A press release by Microsoft, 'Women rule in Malaysian Blogosphere' reported that a survey done in September 2006 discovered 49 per cent of Malaysian blogs are created as a way to connect with friends and families. 50 per cent of respondents like writing about their thoughts and commenting on current issues. Interestingly, only three per cent of Malaysian bloggers consider themselves as 'citizen journalists'.
Blogging Communities
The rising number of bloggers also prompted the growth of blogging communities. Blogging communities are a group of people who gather together based on their common interests or shared values. Such communities exist in Malaysia. Nuffnang Malaysia, Asia's first blog advertising community and Bloglah.org are examples of prominent blogging communities in Malaysia.
Designing for Online vs Designing for Print
Both print and online are examples of multimodal texts. According to Maureen Walsh (2006), multimodal texts are texts which incorparate a few elements such as text, visuals and sound.
Based on personal experience, I believe designing for print is more difficult compared to designing for online. Designing for print has more limitations compared to websites. I also believe that when given a choice, people will prefer the print form rather than the online form for heavy reading. According to Diane Reep (2006), readers only 'scan' websites and they hardly read every single line and they only seek the information they want on the website.
New Forms of Media Publishing
Blogs are a good example of the new forms of media publishing. This phenomenon has been around for nearly a decade now and it shows no signs of slowing down. More and more people are signing up and creating new blogs everyday. Yet, new forms of media publishing does not mean the death of the traditional forms; they complement one another.
References:
Jensen, M 2003, Emerging alternatives: a brief history of weblogs, Columbia Journalism Review, viewed 27 October 2007, < http://cjrarchives.org/issues/2003/5/blog-jensen.asp>
Walsh, M 2006, ‘“Textual shift”: examining the reading process
with print, visual and multimodal texts’,
Australian journal of language and literacy, Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 24-37.
Wilson, G 2006, Down with blogs, so here’s another, BBC News, viewed 26 October 2007, < http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/5116654.stm>
Women rule in malaysian blogosphere 2006, Press Microsoft
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